Bread of Life – September

Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends

John 15:13

In these words, Christ provides for us the model of Christian life. This is what He did for us, and this is what He asks us to do for Him and for all who belong to Him.


Let us examine two components of His call. First, Christ lays down His life for His friends. Do we understand what it means to be a friend? A friend is not simply a companion or a comforter or an ally but one with whom we share an uncommon appreciation of the truth. Friends know and love the same things. Christ invites us to join Him in His knowledge and love of the Father.

When someone encounters another who knows and loves what he himself knows and loves, the first understands the second to be like himself. He finds in the second another self. He rejoices to find that he is not alone. Friends belong to each other, and enjoy their mutual belonging.

“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”

John 15:13

Second, Christ lays down His life for His friends. Are we ready to lay down our lives? Friendship changes us: a friend is no longer merely himself; he belongs to others. Though he may die, he does not cease to belong to others. This is why in every culture and age, men have laid down their lives for their friends – death was not for them the utter end.
 
Thus it was most wonderfully with Christ. Death could not hold Him who died in friendship with the Father. His Resurrection brought to fulfillment the meaning of friendship: eternal life in the Lord. Friendship prepares us to lay down our own lives. Those who have done so rejoiced to demonstrate the knowledge and the love by which they belong to their friends. This is the joy of the martyrs – the joy of friendship makes their sacrifices possible.
 
We pray: Lord, strengthen us with the joy of belonging to You. Through us your friends, reveal Yourself, the Greatest Love, that we might joyfully lay down our lives for You.

“God’s will is no longer for me an alien will…but it is now my own will, based on the realization that God is infact more deeply present to me than I am to myself. Then self- abandonment to God increases and God becomes our joy”

(Deus Caritas Est §17)

Picture of Ben Martin

Ben Martin

CiV co-ordinator of reflections

Ben, his wife Amelja, and their son Peter live in Tampa, FL, USA.

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